Panic at Manly Beach: Bull shark sighting has swimmers jumping on jet-skis to get out of water
SYNDEY, AUSTRALIA: Swimmers and surfers were frantically evacuated from the water after a shark alarm was flagged at one of Sydney's most popular beaches. The shark alarm reportedly went off at Manly Beach, on Sydney's north shore, before 8 am on Thursday, March 2 when a group of swimmers was completing their daily Manly to Shelly Beach swim.
Dorsal Watch, a shark reporting and alert solution noted that the evacuation process was started immediately after a tagged Bull Shark was detected by the North Steyne receiver, according to the New Daily. A photo taken from the panicked scene also showed a number of swimmers leaping aboard a jet ski in a desperate attempt to escape the shark, DailyMail reported. A witness described how life-savers hurried to warn unaware swimmers and dragged many of them to the coastline on jetskis in a frantic effort to avert injuries.
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‘Yelling and whistling’
"I heard the shark alarm go off, I looked up and I saw the jetski hanging around the swimmers," the witness told news.com.au. "It looked like he was driving up to all the swimmers and talking to them, they all started piling onto the jet ski. There were six or so people that climbed up onto the jetski and he started to drive them back to shore." The witness also revealed that there were some swimmers, who chose to ignore the warning and stayed in the water. "The lifeguard was driving right next to them and yelling and whistling," they said.
This horrific incident came just days after Manly Beach was named the 13th best beach in the world by TripAdvisor, according to New Daily. “A long, wide, sandy beach that sits right on the edge of the Pacific Ocean,” TripAdvisor said. “There are walking and cycle paths, some green lawn areas, as well as the sandy beach.” The online travel site looked at the quality and quantity of ratings for beach experiences to compile the top 15.
Similar incident
In a similar incident, popular beaches in Sydney were closed when sharks attacked a dolphin in waters near the city. The attack took place in January 2023, when a number of injured dolphins circled the shallow waters before dying on the beach. At least two bull sharks were spotted in the Shelly Beach area, in northern Sydney, after the attack and authorities closed all nearby beaches as a precaution.
An eyewitness, who was on Shelly beach revealed that initially she was delighted to see the dolphins but later realized they were running away from sharks. "We came back and saw the dolphin was on the beach which was incredibly sad," she said, according to BBC. Tracey Hare-Boyd, a spokeswoman from Surf Life Saving New South Wales (SLSNSW), said that, luckily, no person had been injured or involved in the attack.